John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)
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514. To ask the Minister for Health further to Parliamentary Question No. 362 of 12 July 2018, the number of procedures carried out to date (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37480/18]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Reducing waiting time for patients for hospital operations and procedures is a key priority for the Government and €50 million was provided to the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) in 2018 to secure treatment for patients. The Inpatient/Day Case Action Plan, published last April outlines the combined impact of HSE and NTPF activity in 2018.

The Inpatient Day Case Waiting List figures published by the NTPF for August are showing an ongoing improvement with 74,189 patients waiting for hospital operations and procedures. This is a reduction of almost 10,000 (9,757) compared with August 2017.

There has been a significant reduction of almost 7,300 in the number of patients waiting longer than 9 months for an inpatient or day case procedure since this time last year.

The ongoing collaboration between the HSE and NTPF to maximise the number of patients treated in both public and private capacity has resulted in over 14,000 patients accepting an offer of treatment for a hospital procedure so far this year.